1. Field of the Inventions
The present inventions relate to soap dispensers, and more particularly, electric soap dispensers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Users of modern public washroom facilities increasingly desire that each of the fixtures in the washroom operate automatically without being touched by the user's hand. This is important in view of increased user awareness of the degree to which germs and bacteria may be transmitted from one person to another in a public washroom environment. Today, it is not uncommon to find public washrooms with automatic, hands-free operated toilet and urinal units, hand washing faucets, soap dispensers, hand dryers, and door opening mechanisms. This automation allows the user to avoid touching any of the fixtures in the facility, and therefore lessens the opportunity for the transmission of disease-carrying germs or bacteria resulting from manual contact with the fixtures in the washroom.
It is desirable that, with regard to automatic soap dispensers, that such a soap dispenser delivers uniform measure doses of fluid soap to users upon each actuation of the device. Several automatically operated washroom fluid soap dispensers have been proposed in patents such as, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,929,150 (Muderlak, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,935 (Celest), U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,384 (Pilolla), as well as others.